I couldn't resist posting this. I'm flashing on the Chinese family association banquets I used to attend as a kid, and meeting scads of people whom I couldn't understand and wouldn't recognize on the street minutes later? Wow. Now multiply by 20...
Hundreds from around the country who share the Chinese surname descend on L.A. to celebrate heritage, ponder future.
By David Pierson
August 20, 2007
They came from every corner of the United States to Los Angeles' Chinatown on Sunday to celebrate their kinship and their surname.
Hundreds of Lees from Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, to name a few places, marched down Broadway and officially commenced the 19th national convention of the Lee Family Assn.
Formed nearly a century and a half ago in San Francisco, the group flourished for more than 100 years, like many other Chinese family and village associations, by providing members a place of refuge in a country that long shunned and discriminated against the Chinese. They anchored the Chinatowns across the United States by offering members loans, securing burial plots and helping settle business disputes for a community denied access to most mainstream institutions.
But in modern times, with their aging ranks and challenges from newer and more prosperous Chinese communities in the suburbs, family associations such as the Lees face an uncertain future. [more]
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